For teaching people to follow Christ and casting out an evil spirit, Paul and Silas were stripped, beaten, and placed in stocks in the dungeon of a Macedonian jail. Continually in prayer, about midnight they began to sing hymns. Suddenly, the Lord created a great earthquake, loosening their chains and opening the cell doors.

Believing the prisoners had escaped, the jailer was about to kill himself by falling on his sword, but Paul shouted, “Don’t harm yourself! We are all here!” The jailer leaped into the cell, falling down before Paul and Silas, and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Within an hour, he and his household received Christ and were baptized.

Paul praised God for sending him to Macedonia to lift up Jesus Christ. He commanded the Philippians, “Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and with definite requests and thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God.” (Philippians 4:6)

In the 1300s, a man wrote about loving God’s will. The essence of his commentary was as follows:

To love God’s will because it consoles us is good when it is God’s will that is loved, not the consoling. To love God’s will by His commandments, counsels, and inspirations is a second-degree love. It is more than skin deep or consoles, and it is much more perfect, for it leads us to turn and forsake our own will. But to love sufferings and afflictions for the love of God is the highest point of holy love. For in suffering and affliction, there is nothing lovable except the love of God. It is at this point of great contradiction to our human nature that the devil tries to weary and weaken us. He knows very well that the greatest and finest act of love is when we avoid evil by our own surrender to the Lord’s morals and character.

Choate Baptist Church is located at 6355 State Hwy 239, just 8 miles southeast of Kenedy. We meet Sunday mornings at 9:45 and 11:00, and Sunday and Wednesday evenings at 7:00. Brother Odom’s message can be heard on Radio KAML 990 AM each Sunday morning at 8:30.

We will meet again to pray for our nation Tuesday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. Everyone is invited to this non-denominational, non-partisan time of lifting America in prayer.

At 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 14, we will have a community outreach Thanksgiving dinner in our fellowship hall across the highway from the church. Please join us for turkey and dressing, ham, and all the trimmings as we thank the Lord for His many blessings!